ULTRASOUND / 2004 / 25 / 26 / 27 November /

=================================================ULTRASOUND / 2004 / 25 / 26 / 27 November /=================================================Ultrasound is a three day international festivalexploring experimental sound, electronic musicand the creative use of new and emergingtechnologies. Ultrasound 2004 presents a diverseprogramme of live performances, workshop,installation, presentations and DJ night.

The live sets present UK and international creatorsof contemporary electronic music who use experimentalprogramming techniques to create a range of musicalperformances embracing fractured, impossible rhythmsand delicate organic sounds.

A hands on workshop designed for all skill levels;anyone can attend, but it will be of specialinterest to artists, new media practitioners, videoartists, musicians, graphic, multimedia, and3D designers.

The workshop explores open source codingenvironments and tools, new instruments, concepts,and play for multimedia. Introducing Pure Data,Python, SuperCollider, Processing, and Max/MSP.

After a short introduction to these environments,we explore how they can communicate with each othervia a new protocol called OSC [Open Sound Control].We present the fundamentals of device control,using the Teleo system within Max/MSP.

A Digital Research Unit event, part of the CreativeLabs series of workshops. Supported by YorkshireForward as part of the Centre of Excellence in DigitalDesign at the University of Huddersfield.

http://gem.iem.athttp://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.htmlhttp://processing.org=================================================ALKU DJs [ES] / THU 25 / 7.30pm - Late /=================================================Anna Ramos and Roc Jimenez de Cisneros have beenactive in the area of computer music and digitalarts since 1997, both creating music andinstallations and publishing other artistsmaterial on their home label, Alku. These include:Jliat, Edwin van der Heide, Hecker, CharlieFerrari, Wobbly, Yasunao Tone, Team Doyobi,Powerbooks for Peace and Pita.

Steve Symons | AuraA sonic multi-user augmented reality that allowsusers to create a personal audio landscape throughtheir actions within a defined space, and in doingso, they also alter the soundscape for other users.

Alex McLean | TOPLAPThe application of live programming to compositionand performance. TOPLAP advocates treatingalgorithms as live artistic material, allowing themto be written and manipulated on the fly.

Farmersmanual have created a series of performancesand installations since 1996, continuouslyexpanding their performance and publishing practicefrom music concerts to interdisciplinary cultural,aesthetic and political experiments, which moveaway from static representations of art and culture,towards environments where the public becomes anessential part of the work. Their latest experimentsfocus on integrating virtual and physical space tocreate synaesthetical objects, presenting aninterconnected, holistic view of the world bylayering sensual experiences.

Extracting a shadow from the skeleton of networkflow. A layer of technological reality usuallyhidden becomes accessible through mediationinto sound and visual flicker. Erratically shiftingfrom chittering machines into the human realm. Replayin different timescales. Different times. Differentspeeds. Useless information ­ still unpredictable.

During Ultrasound, Farmersmanual will produce anetworked concert between Huddersfield and elsewhere.

http://www.farmersmanual.co.at=================================================KLIPP AV [UK/SE] / FRI 26 / 7.30pm - Late /=================================================Presented in accordance with the TOPLAP manifesto,so we can see [as well as hear] beat cutting andbody rocking algorithms develop.

Fredrik Olofsson works with visual and audio art,programming, secret intelligence agents, and cafes.Fredrik is the more important and generallybetter turned out half of klipp av. Nick Collinsis secretly a hard working music researcher whodevelops new technologies for laptop performance.Nick is the more important and generally betterturned out half of klipp av.

The audience witness the use of live video,scratched and cut up in sync with the audio cuttersrunning in the music. Stutters in sound translateinto stutters in video, while the performersthemselves dance frantically for the cameras; theaudience is involved through video and audio capture.More subtle and abstract mappings are used,aside from live video, some fantastic demonstrationsof the techniques come with the control ofgenerative 3D graphics.

http://www.klippav.org=================================================MILEECE [UK] / FRI 26 / 7.30pm - Late /=================================================Mileece was born in 1978 in London, England. Shehas a degree in Sonic Art where she specialisedin generative computer programming languages.

Her first album Formations [Lo-Recordings] iscomprised of a series of compositions, wholly orpartly derived from programs she wrote inSuperCollider.

The compositions themselves were inspired byformations in nature: the rotating progressionof sparse then condensed spouts of growth inplants, the changing hues and intensities of light,the sudden changing gusts to wisps of the wind,the unfathomably intricate structures ofsnowflakes, the random patterns of raindrops asthey fall to ground.

Mileece believes that the computer can betransformed from an inanimate object to somethingcapable of participating in the creation of musicin a way which is interactive with the composeras well as the audience.

In her programs, the computer assumes the roleof performer within a spectrum from the spontaneousto the directed [even at times co-composer],navigating through restricted chance operationsto generate its uncannily human sounding formationsand sundry levels of listening.

http://www.mileece.net=================================================STEPHAN MATHIEU [DE] / SAT 27 / 7.30pm - Late /=================================================Stephan Mathieu is a digital artist who lives inSaarbrucken, Germany. He spent a good part ofthe 90s as an improvising drummer in Berlin butnow works mainly in the field of digital music.

Stephan¹s music [either released under his ownname or as Full Swing] is infused with a warmthand glow usually associated with analogue soundproduction. Using extracts of melodies and texturefrom various sources, he weaves deep, beautifulevolving soundscapes bathed in swathes of staticand hiss.

He also creates sound installations, graphicdesign and teaches digital arts and conceptualpractice at the University for Arts and Design,Saarbrucken and works as a guest lecturer at theBauhaus University, Weimar and the Merz-Akademiein Stuttgart, Germany.

Stephan¹s music has been released on Fallt,Ritornell, Korm Plastics, EN/OF, Lucky Kitchen,Brombron, Hapna and Orthlorng Musork.

The work began as a documentation of recentinstallations ­ some in public spaces, some galleryworks, some large works, some small. Inspired bythe problems brought up by this activity, insteadof using recordings to document them, ten processescame about, each of which relates to the spacesand works in a different way; a recording, or systemused to run the work, a pattern, a method ortechnique, a way of working, a name, or a referencepoint outside the work.

Mark Fell was born and educated in Sheffield. Hisworks, usually interactive, time based orgenerative, draw upon an interest in contemporaryphilosophy, computer science, and being human.

With collaborator Mat Steel he works as snd,releasing on Mille Plateaux [Frankfurt], withother projects on OR [London], Line [New York],and Fals.ch [Vienna]. Mark¹s major works have beenshow at Hong Kong National Film archive,ISEA [Paris], Sonar [Barcelona], CreativityCognition Studios [Sydney], Siggraph [LA], Mutek[Montreal] and others.

http://www.markfell.com=================================================TABLEX [UK/FR] / SAT 27 / 7.30pm - Late / =================================================TOPLAP [Temporary Organisation for the Promotionof Live Algorithm Programming], was set up toexplore the application of live programming tocomposition and performance. TOPLAP advocatestreating algorithms as live artistic material,allowing them to be written and manipulated whilethey create music or video, perhaps in front ofan audience.

Two unusual directions towards the simple end ofmaking very live, improvised computer music.

http://toplap.org=================================================SI-CUT.DB [UK] / SAT 27 / 7.30PM - LATE /=================================================Hailing from Brentford, West London, DouglasBenford has been releasing his digital music underthe alias SI-CUT.DB since 1991. As well as theSI-CUT.DB moniker, with seven albums releasedunder this guise, Benford has also recorded asRadial Blend, Pantunes Music, Phoenix Jig andMedia Form.

Benford has collaborated with Scanner,Rechenzentrum, Janek Schaefer, Iris Garrelfs,Stephan Mathieu, Benge [currently as Tennis],and Tonne. Ranging from microsound and electronicato dub, Benford has released music on Fallt, BipHop, Back Ground, Highpoint Lowlife and 12K.

Benford's current approach to his SI-CUT.DB worktends, with perfomances and recordings, to use avariety of softwares [generative and file morphingis a trademark] and sound sample source techniquesfrom improvised acoustic recordings and lo-fichildrens keyboards, which are then edited, effected,and sequenced. The latest SI-CUT.DB album entitledOffices At Night is recently released on the Falltlabel, with remixes up-coming from MitchellAkiyama, Akira Rabelais, Hrvatski and others.

He has played Ars Electronica, Tate Modern, Nokialab,Transmediale, Sintesi and New Forms festivals,and has been a co-curator of Sprawl electronicmusic events and label for over eight years, aswell as founding the Suburb Of Hell and Pantuneslabels.

rand()%lab is a group exhibition created by TomBetts and Joe Gilmore. rand()% is an automatedinternet radio station broadcasting real-timegenerative music by sound artists and programmers.rand()%lab features installations by Joe Gilmore,Tom Betts and Alku, and a selection ofaudiovisual works by Dextro, Lia, Miguel Carvalhais,Steinbruchel, Brusa, Renox, Thor Magnusson, RunarMagnusson and Birta Thrastardottir.